TfL Agrees to Improve A316 Crossing by St Stephens

28 May 2016

Local Councillor Ben Khosa urged the Transport for London to visit the A316 crossing to see if they could improve the timings of the lights. After some weeks they finally visited the intersection and have made plans to improve the crossing.

They plan to:

Pedestrian countdown will be added to the crossings to provide pedestrians with a visual indication as to how long they have left to cross the road before traffic starts again.

Detection will be added to the southern crossing point so that the traffic control system can pick up when pedestrian flows are at their greatest. This will then extend the green man time during peak demand to provide pedestrians with a better chance of crossing in one movement.

Next steps are for:

Hardware to be installed towards the end of June

Following this a period of on-street adjustments by ourselves to optimise the balance for road users and pedestrians at various times of day to seek the best balance for all (approx. a week of work).

Comments

On more than one occasion, I have nearly been mown down on the southern pedestrian crossing by cars which failed to stop for the lights. I wonder if the Councillor could install red light cameras so that if they are successful next time, I will be reassured in my dying moments that the errant motorist will receive a fine and might thus be dissuaded from bumping off other pedestrians.

James on 2016-05-31 17:39:20 +0000

Is the Council monitoring the emissions at this crossing?. Since its introduction there are more cars idling outside St Stephens School. I think that before more investment is made into making this a permanent alternative to the footbridge, there should be readings taken to determine any increase in pollution.

Marilyn Hawkins on 2016-05-31 20:25:49 +0000

James Your experience has been reported to TfL engineers as has other people's. Cllr cannot do anything other than challenge decisions as I did with funding for countdown and as we did for removing the Bridge. Ben Khosa

Ben Khosa on 2016-06-01 08:34:25 +0000

Marilyn This may be TfL territory and I'm due to meet them early July when I will put it to them. I'm working with TfL at the request of the Police/school and residents to make the crossing safer for obvious reasons and certainly not to make this a permanent alternative. Whilst TfL confirmed to me that they have "no plans to remove this Bridge" some months ago it may be prudent to remember the phrase "use it or loose it" for the longer term.